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A Ladybug Tee for Junebug Tutorial

Happy Valentine's Day crafty friends! Are you doing something special to celebrate the holiday? For sweet little Junebug, I made a Gap knock-off t-shirt that I feel compelled to share with you.

The idea came from a sweet shirt I ran across at Gap a few weeks ago. Junebug and I both liked it, but being the cheapskate crafty gal that I am, I thought I could recreate it for a fraction of the price--so I made it happen!

Here's the shirt we saw at Gap:

I had all of the supplies on hand from previous projects except for the t-shirt, which cost $3.

Let me start by saying that perfection is not the key to this shirt. The original is funky-looking and I wanted to keep it that way, so don't go getting all freaked out about perfection--just let it go!

I started with a dollop of white paint and a dollop of red paint (both are T-shirt fabric paints) and then used my mad art skills (NOT!) to create a pink streak in the center. I wanted there to be some streakiness in the colors, so I only moved my sponge brush through the paint in one direction.

Make a ladybug-like shape and then let it dry. (Be sure to put a piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt so the paint doesn't bleed through. I normally use an old file folder for this.)

See how imperfect it is? No biggie--it's supposed to be that way! Once the red/white/pink streaks are dry, fill in the rest of the ladybug's body with the black t-shirt paint. Then use the black puff paint to make the antennae and the heart-shaped ladybug spots. So cuh-yoot!

If you're happy with it as is, then you can be done at this point. Personally, I liked how the word "love" was embroidered on the original Gap shirt, so I added it. I simply wrote the word "love" on the t-shirt with a water-soluble pen and then embroidered over it with red floss using a backstitch.

It's not a must, but I also fused a small piece of interfacing over the backside of the stitching so the back of the stitches would not be exposed on the inside of the shirt. Junebug is a picky gal, and I'm sure she'd be bothered by the exposed stitches against her skin. Man, she is one tough cookie!

So, here's the original next to my knock-off:

I'd say the savings and the crafty satisfaction were worth a little bit of effort! Whaddya think?

Hey. I'm Tristin. I wish I could crochet all day, but I try to fulfill my other roles, too. Here's where I share about my ups and downs and failures and successes. Come on in. Have a look around. I won't bite.